American fatality in Bermuda

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Eg. this: "You often launch a lift bag from around 40-50ft as it gives you something to hang from as you surface."
Why?? Good bouyancy control does it for you. Both holding steady at the deco stop and fully inflated at the top. If one insist sending up a liftbag, why can't wait until the deco obligation is over?

Anyway, 200ft is a serious dive, I assume/hope deco stops were planned by the book...

Errr, actually shooting a smb to establish a stable platform and also to show surface boats where you are is pretty much standard practice for the tech divers I know when in the ocean without an anchor / shot line. Actually had that drummed into me by two different instructors as well. One likes to shoot the SMB when he leaves the bottom (maybe from 400ft) while the other believes in waiting until he is closer to the 40ft to 50ft range. I think it would raise eyebrows out here if your dive plan did not include putting up a smb at about that point.

I see nothing that makes me doubt the deco stops were properly planned.

 

[billt4sf]

“Paul let his bag off but it got caught on the back of his tank and pulled him to the surface.

Boy, it doesn't take much, does it?

 

[MMM]

I don't know that I would call it "standard" practice...maybe more like "a practice"?

I just recounted this story to a doc here on Cozumel who runs one of the hyperbaric chambers. He asked me (somewhat rhetorically) "do they not have a chamber in Bermuda?" He went on to say that when there is a chamber nearby, it is ALWAYS safest to head there immediately rather than attempt to re-enter the water and do any missed stops. He went on to outline ALL of the conditions he feels are needed in order to even contemplate re-entering the water, which I won't go into here.

I'm no doctor, but I would think that one would want to ensure properly functioning lungs before worrying about recompression. Maybe it was too late for the guy even before he got back in the water....hard to know without seeing the autopsy. But if this EVER were to happen to me, I would want to be headed for medical treatment, warp speed.

Standard practice for missed deco, if you are able to go back within a minute and are showing no signs of DCS or AGE.

Loose line kills. It was drummed into me by more than one instructor that you do not have loose line when you dive. You only unroll the minimum amount you need (which is an inch or two for shooting SMBs) and you keep it taught at all times.

I doubt it would have made any difference, but once it was apparent he was having trouble breathing, he could have blown off remaining deco and gotten onto O2 while waiting for a trip to the nearest chamber.

 

[merxlin]

The way I am reading this, he surfaced but never left the water. If there was no issue with his breathing at the surface (where he was with their safety diver), I can see why he was sent back down to complete the deco obligation. That is when he was started having trouble breathing.

“I tried to grab him and pull him back down with me, but he was dragged to the surface.

“Our safety diver sent Paul back down to me to try and continue with the ascent, which is standard practice.

“That is when we could tell he was obviously having trouble breathing.

 

[DandyDon]

Careful about taking too much from news stories.

 

[MMM]

The way I am reading this, he surfaced but never left the water. If there was no issue with his breathing at the surface (where he was with their safety diver), I can see why he was sent back down to complete the deco obligation. That is when he was started having trouble breathing.

He went on to say that when there is a chamber nearby, it is ALWAYS safest to head there immediately rather than attempt to re-enter the water and do any missed stops.

I should probably have more properly said "re-descend" instead of "re-enter".

What I struggle with is the notion that he appeared to be OK at the surface (as opposed being OK for sure). I don't know how quickly pulmonary embolism symptoms appear, so my thinking that they may not appear immediately could well be in error. But I would not want to take the chance that this was one of the things I was dealing with, in addition to, perhaps a missed decompression stop. I would just head for medical assessment/treatment. After all, isn't that why we carry diving insurance?

 

[Mike]

How much air did this guy put into his SMB in order for it to take him on a run-away ascent to the surface?

At 50 ft that's only filling maybe 1/3rd full at most as the air would expand on the way up. Did he just inflate the thing to the max and send it up like a rocket???? Maybe he had a jump SMB or something, as I can't see how a properly filled normal SMB would have enough lift to over power you and your ability to simply turn ass over kettle and swim down.

 

[peterbj7]

Mike - a "normal" DSMB when filled so that it will be rigid at the surface (its desirable state) will normally have ample buoyancy to drag you up if you let it. But it appears that this buddy pair were inexperienced at launching DSMBs (assuming that's what it was - the American term "lift bag" can mean almost anything). To have sufficient slack line to go behind your head and tangle on your tank is a very serious error. Perhaps he tried to fin down rather than simply dumping all his BC air and exhaling? For the buddy not to be close enough and prepared to grab his buddy and try to hold him down, and then if necessary to cut the line, is crazy. I make a point of ensuring I'm vertical when I deploy a DSMB as that gives you far greater control - I've seen "purists" who insist on being horizontal the whole time who seemed to me not to be in full control.

But whatever, I wasn't there. A tragic and most unfortunate accident.

 

[darkstar]

For what it's worth, shooting a lift bag as an ascent line was taught on both of the advanced Nitrox and decompression courses that I took. It was also taught on the Trimix courses that all of my buddies took and it is the method that we used as a 'standard' procedure for when a fixed line wasn't present. It's also practiced as a drill in the area I dive in as an emergency measure in the event that you get swept of the anchor line.

It is certainly not unusual for anyone trained to dive to 200ft to shoot a lift bag. I don't know what deco training teaches that it's a bad thing but if someone took such a course, I'd like to know what it is so I can check it out.

I was also taught that if I did get pulled up, or accidentally ascended above a stop, AND WAS NOT SYMPTOMATIC, that I should immediately return to the planned stop and finish my deco. That makes a lot of sense when you consider commercial and navy divers who ascend fairly quickly in the last stage of a dive and then transfer immediately to an onboard re-compression chamber. If you blow off a deep stop from a 200ft dive, I don't think a bottle of O2, a DAN card and a distant chamber are going to save you. Quickly getting back down just might.

And, I was taught that loose line kills, to keep the reel away from my body, to be ready to let go if it jammed, to keep my travel and deco gas bottles clipped in tight. It took a lot of dives to learn. I've screwed up and sent my reel to the surface or bottom more than a few times. I've seen instructors with thousands of dives screw it up.

I'm sorry this guy died from making such a simple mistake. Getting tangled in your line is an easy mistake to make and it doesn't sound like he had much of a chance to recover from it. I guess I'll practice more and hopefully not make the same mistake. This is one of the few accident reports I've seen in this forum that could actually save a life.

 

[Colliam7]

Careful about taking too much from news stories.

EXACTLY! Which is why the challenged the statement:

So many things wrong with this dive "plan" that I cannot even start to list them.

Notably, that poster has yet to respond.

You have a buddy team apparently (from the report) engaged in a project to document the impact of lionfish on the marine environment in Bermuda. They were diving at 200 ft. They were taking pictures. This doesn't sound like a spur-of-the-moment bounce dive to 200 ft on an AL80, with enough time to shoot two pictures and then come back up. It seems more likely, at least to me, that this was a thoughtful, intentional, planned dive, for which I will presume that they were equipped - with gear, gas, and a dive plan - sufficiently to accomplish the mission safely. Could I be wrong? Yes. But, that seems far more likely than a stunt. Frankly, there was little in the description that raised alarms about the 'plan'. Shooting a bag at 40 ft, is certainly not uncommon. OK, it isn't 'standard' - many decompression schedules are accomplished on the primary anchor line. But, I can see multiple scenarios that would end up with a decompressing buddy team shooting a bag at 40 feet - to let the dive boat know they were intentionally separating from the anchor line (which the boat could then pull), or the current had picked up and it was easier for them to do a drift hang, instead of flapping in the current trying to hold the anchor line, or they did a free ascent for the first part of their deco schedule (perhaps, no anchor line was even in the water), and they were alerting the boat (which presumably had been following bubbles) that they had reached their 40 foot stop, which would give the boat a good idea of where they were in the deco plan, as well as a good surface marker to follow behind during the longer part of the deco schedule. I wasn't there, the details haven't been fully commuincated, and all of these presumtions could be wrong. But, before I jump to a conclusion that there was anything 'wrong with this dive plan', I can easily see how it was 'right', up to the point of the lift bag deployment.

A diver does an uncontrolled buoyant ascent from 40 feet, and misses the last several (important) deco stops (maybe, 40, 30 and 20 feet). He hits the surface, quickly untangles the line, he feels fine. What should he do? OK, I could make the argument to come on board, let's get back to shore and to a chamber (of course, after we send a crew member down / recall the other diver, who then has to blow off his decompression schedule). But, I am not familiar with the site in Bermuda where the dive took place, so I don't know what diving in 'deep water off Tuckers Town' implies. Maybe, they were a two hour boat ride from shore. Maybe, they were in an area where helicopter transport was not available. Maybe, the diver made an on-the-spot judgement call, and decided to simply drop back down to 40ft and finish the deco obligation. Frankly, I have seen that as often as I have seen, 'Run for shore!' And, each time, it has worked. What would I do - I would quite probably do exactly what the diver did - I feel OK, it was a quick ride, I am going right back down. In this case, it didn't work. Or, in this case, maybe the damage was already done, and the diver would have died from an AGE on the boat on the way to a chamber. Hindsight sure is wonderful.

This was a tragic accident. I can't fault the diver for getting tangled in the lift bag line - it happens (rarely, but it happens) despite training and experience. And, as much as I would like to agree that the buddy should have been ready to cut him loose, I can't fault that, either. I am two feet away, watching my buddy deploy his bag, possibly clipping off his camera for him while he does the deployment. I don't see the line get partially wrapped around a tank valve. The bag is inflated, and away my buddy goes, faster than I could possibly react, catch him, and cut the line. Or, even if i do manage to grab him, it is a really short ride from 40 ft to the surface. That is reality.

What can we learn so far, without additional details which may come forth later: 1. constant vigilance is required during a dive, as even a simple task can put you in harm's way - to be honest, I have even never thought before this about having my cutting tool out and ready to go while my dive buddy is deploying his bag; 2. lift bag deployment is simple, but it is a practiced art, so practice it regularly; 3. sometimes, bad things happen.